Mrs Goldwasser, speaking at a venue in central London, said: "We came here to appeal for Ehud's and his colleague's release and we came to bring their story to the whole world.

"We are trying to look for people who know people, who know people who eventually might know Hezbollah and try to convince them to bring us a sign Ehud is still alive, because until now we don't have any sign or any proof he's alive."

Mrs Goldwasser, who like her husband is studying for a master's degree in environmental engineering at the Israeli Institute of Technology, said she last saw her husband the Saturday before he was abducted and spoke to him the night before he was due to return home after spending a month doing military service.

She said: "I really, really want the killing to be stopped.

"We as a family want the killing to stop. No one in the whole world wants their neighbour or son or husband to be killed."

Mrs Goldwasser was joined in London by her husband's father Shlomo and Mrs Goldwasser's mother Daniela Avni.

The kidnapped reservist's father, who is a 59-year-old operations manager for a shipping company, said: "We are not happy about all the deaths, we are not happy when we hear about casualties, about children, women and civilians dying - it scratches our hearts, both for Israeli and Lebanese deaths."

He added: "We are not politicians and we didn't come here to give a political message.